Who Gives The Best College Advice? It’s Not Who You’d Expect!

Another informative report from Gallup and Strada Education Network was released last month. In June, my co-founder Mel shared highlights about the Gallup/Strada report that focused on which education decisions adults would change. The September report is titled ‘Where Students Get Valued Advice On What To Study In College’.

This most recent report was created using data gathered from "2,087 responses from U.S. residents who were asked to identify where they received advice about which major to pursue and then asked to rate the helpfulness of that advice".

The findings that I found most interesting were:

Only 11% cited getting college major advice from their high school counselor and this source had the lowest percent of respondents citing the advice was helpful!

Among the most frequently mentioned sources, the two with the highest percent of respondents stating that the college major advice was helpful were ‘a person with experience in the field’ and ‘an employer or coworker’.

These responses point to the importance of career role models (like those featured in Couragion’s app) and work-based experiences for our youth (such as the CareerWise Apprenticeship model). The report showed that those who received advice from these sources had the least percent of respondents having second thoughts about their major.

As educators and parents, it behooves us to find ways to increase students’ access to role models and work-based experiences. How are you doing this with your children and/or students?

Image Credit: in the image above is one of our role models, Alicia, a logistics specialist at DT Swiss. She is pictured with her work mentor, Carlos, who has been instrumental in providing her with career advice.